The Magnificent Flying Baron Estate

WB has an unusual family. His parents, M and P, are inventors. Life is always an adventure in their household, but it becomes even more so when M and P enter a contest to build a flying machine and compete in a race across the USA. WB isn’t keen on going, but things get significantly worse when they’re kidnapped by Rose, a member of the notorious Blackwood family. The race is about to get a whole lot more interesting than WB could have bargained for.

WB is a very clumsy kid who feels out of place in his brainy family. While funny and exciting overall, a few things were a little jarring. The story is meant to be set in 1891, yet the details don’t do much to make the book feel historical. Also, WB and his family seem to develop a serious case of Stockholm syndrome when they end up taking their kidnapper into their family. (As it turns out, she’s a really nice person.) Since she never apologizes or admits that it was heinously wrong to kidnap them, it’s a little hard to swallow that it’s okay for her to become a beloved part of the family. If readers can suspend their disbelief on that issue, however, it is an imaginative, unique, and funny book.